


Shallow Water

by NYWCgirl



Series: May whump 2020 [25]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Near Drowning, Rescue, rescue breaths, water whump 2020, ww-no.25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: Mac and Jack need to rescue themselves from their current predicament.
Series: May whump 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727719
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Shallow Water

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet is written for the twenty fifth day of May’s month of whump. The prompt was ‘trapped in shallow water’.

‘OK Mac, tell me you have a plan to get out of here.’

‘For the tenth time, Jack. No, I don’t. We are locked in a cave with water, there is literally nothing I can use. Whose idea was it to jump in?’

‘OK, you don’t have to get bitchy about it. So we will have to swim. Let me check how deep it is and if there is a way out.’

Jack takes off his shoes and dives into the water. He is back fairly quickly.

‘And?’

‘There is a shallow passage that probably leads out. I could see light at the end. For me it is a tight fit, but you should be able to pass right through.’

Mac takes off his jacket and shoes. If Jack can do it, so can he. Jack dives back under and start swimming; Mac takes a couple of deep breaths before following him into the water. Like Jack warned, the passage is tight, but Jack is more bulkier, even so, Mac sometimes has trouble fitting through. It also takes longer to reach the surface that he expected, but he is a strong swimmer, he can do this easily.

_* * *_

Jack breaks the surface and immediately turns to see if Mac is behind him. He is, so Jack climbs the rocks. When he looks from above, he can see Mac is coming up but is deviating. He is kicking, but veers off to one side. He has seen this before, Mac has lost consciousness, he immediately dives back in, grabbing the kid and pulling him onto the rocks. He starts rescue breaths and luckily it doesn’t take long before Mac starts to cough. When water pours from his open mouth Jack knows he took a breath under water when he lost consciousness. Jack keeps working on Mac until Mac tries to get up.

‘Take it easy, Mac, try to take deep breaths.’

Mac coughs and spits out mucus and water.

‘You blacked out. What do you remember?’

‘I was following you and I had this euphoric feeling?’

‘It’s called Shallow Water Blackout. It is an underwater faint due to lack of oxygen to the brain brought on by holding your breath for long periods of time.’

‘How did you know I was in trouble?’

‘I took this diving class during my delta training. They explained that it is important for diving buddies to note the attitude or angle of the diver coming up from depth and not just whether they are still swimming. During unconsciousness a diver may continue to kick or swim because the muscles in the extremes have the ability to function anaerobics.’

‘Extremities and anaerobically. Still, how did you see I was unconscious?’

‘An unconscious diver will veer off to one side or start to sink back down. You were veering off.’

‘Well you saved my life, so thanks, man.’

‘No thanks bud, that’s the wookie life debt, remember?’


End file.
